A former Breeze Airways employee is facing felony theft charges in Utah after prosecutors say he padded his own timecard while suspended from the airline, then falsely told the company he had died by suicide when it came looking for its money back. Felix Odiott Beltran, 39, was fired from the Cottonwood Heights-based carrier on December 29, 2025, but not before allegedly siphoning thousands of dollars out of its payroll system.
According to charging documents cited by KSL, Beltran was placed on unpaid suspension in early December due to misconduct, but he retained access to Breeze Airways' internal payroll system. Prosecutors say he used that access to add 196 hours to his timecard while he was supposed to be off the payroll, and that the padded hours triggered a direct deposit of $6,808.85 into his account. Beltran has been charged with theft by deception, a second-degree felony, in 3rd District Court.
Court records show Beltran entered another 196 hours into the payroll system on the very day he was fired, according to the charging documents. That second entry allegedly generated a duplicate $6,808.85 direct deposit, but Breeze Airways caught it before the money went out, prosecutors say. Because that payment never actually processed, Beltran is separately charged with attempted theft by deception, a third-degree felony under Utah's sentencing framework, which treats an attempted offense as one degree below the completed crime it targeted.
A Demand Letter Met With a Death Claim
Breeze Airways sent Beltran a demand letter in January seeking repayment, according to the charging documents. Rather than respond with a check or an explanation, prosecutors say Beltran wrote back claiming he had died by suicide. It's a claim that, if proven false, doesn't stand as its own crime under Utah law, but using deception to hinder or delay a criminal investigation can be charged separately as obstruction of justice under Utah Code § 76-8-306.
The death claim did not hold up. Salt Lake City police spoke with one of Beltran's relatives in July, and the relative told investigators Beltran was alive and had recently moved to Florida, according to court documents. Public records reviewed point to a residential history separately for Beltran on Castleton Drive in Saint Cloud, located in Osceola County, Florida, corroborating the picture of a suspect who relocated after leaving the airline rather than ending his life.
What Comes Next in the Case
A second-degree felony theft conviction in Utah carries a potential sentence of up to 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000, while the attempted theft charge carries up to five years and a $5,000 fine. Beltran, now living in Florida, raises the question of whether Utah prosecutors will need to pursue formal extradition under the state's Uniform Criminal Extradition Act, which allows a governor's warrant to compel a suspect's return from another state. It remains an open question whether that process has been formally initiated, and how Beltran maintained payroll access at all while suspended is also unresolved in the charging documents.
Breeze Airways, founded by aviation entrepreneur David Neeleman, runs its corporate headquarters out of Cottonwood Heights in the Salt Lake City metro area and has built Utah into one of its central operational bases since launching in 2021, including a major flight hub at Provo Airport. The airline has continued expanding its Western route network in the years since, a footprint Hoodline has tracked through the carrier's growing presence at Utah airports gaining Breeze routes and its rising share of traffic at out-of-state airports alike.
